That's blown it!

It's too late now. Too late to notice that there is a coma missing in paragraph 14; too late to notice that I mixed up the names of the claimant and defendant at random points throughout the tome; too late to amend the inevitable typos littered generously throughout, which for some reason went un-noticed the 3 times that the script was proof read.

The Drafting and Opinion Writing assessments have been emailed with love, and a sloppy Valentine's e-card, to provider. Ok, I lied about the Valentine's bit, but they are sent, vanished, disappeared, gone, but not yet forgotten.

Now there is just the 2 month wait before I know whether I'm quite as thick as my nearest and dearest think I am:-)

On a less obsessive note, tomorrow sees the last of the Negotiation and Advocacy classes, before the exams next month. In an ideal world I would have liked to have spent a great deal more time on the Advocacy prep, but the written exams took centre stage this month, so I've only had a couple of hours to cobble together a few notes and a trial plan. As for the Negotiation, well, it has always been my least favourite subject and after last month's fiasco, it is now on par with cleaning the oven.

I pick up my options stuff this weekend. I actually have no idea what the said 'stuff' is, and no idea what each option entails. Apparently it's a big secret, well either that, or provider can't be bothered to explain. There was a brief explanation on Blackboard, but not enough to make an informed decision. I guess it all adds to the excitement.

It only dawned on me today that there aren't any more classes with my 'big' group. I shall miss them. Not sure which one's are doing the same options as me, we were all a bit confused about them last month.

So, it is now time for the final slog towards the finish line. It's too early to tell how I shall fair with the grade fairy. In my heart of hearts I shall be gutted if I get a 'C'. I suppose that sounds quite arrogant, but I have worked really hard for this and would like to do well.

The biggest worry is the 'Marmite Effect', as regards the oral skills. Some tutors like my style, some definitely don't, so it's with the toss of a coin as to how I shall do in the 3 remaining compulsory oral skills exams.

Time now to get my papers together for the 'trial' tomorrow morning. 'Can you tell the Court your full name please...'

Work in progress(ish)

I am still working on the BVC written exams and progress is painfully slow. I have chopped and changed my Opinion until it has lost what little flow it had in the first place. Today I intend to try and reach the finish of the first draft and will let it sit for a couple of days, before looking at it with a fresh set of eyes. Last night I read it out to Barman and was surprised that it sounded better than I thought, although it was repetitive in parts. The niggling feeling that I had about missing something obvious hasn't gone away and yesterday I spent a couple of hours perusing Chitty and Halsbury's to see if there was something that I'd forgotten - the search was futile, but the niggle remains.

The Drafting is on ice, as I came to a sticking point and decided to leave well alone for a few days before trying to work out where I'm going with my pleadings (nowhere fast probably:-)).

I dread the point at which I have to hand over my work and then the wait for weeks before discovering my mark. Just thinking about it makes me feel sick.

There are 4 other lots of homework to do - 2 lots of Advocacy prep and 2 lots of Negotiation plans. I will be lucky to finish the homework this month!

The options DVD lectures are handed out in February, I haven't heard whether or not I have been given the choices that I wanted. I also haven't had the MCT results yet, but I think that they are out in the next couple of weeks? Good time to join the Foreign Legion perhaps!

It was very frosty this morning and I had to take it steady with Bar-Os on the way to the paddock. He has got a little bored with the routine and stops dead at any given point, looks in the direction that he would prefer to go (he has a thing about gravel drives and always wants to walk up them and explore). This morning he decided that he wanted to have a walk around the snobby cul-de-sac and refused to move, standing on the spot staring into a little hankerchief garden and the kitchen window beyond. I pretended that I'd had to stop to faff about with something in my pocket. He has also developed a bum scratching fetish (a leftover from his skin condition) and turns his rather large backside around to be scratched. I haven't seen his face for weeks and it is only a matter of time, I fear, before I am hauled down to the police station to explain exactly why I always seem to have a horse's arse in my face:-)

Oh well, I can't delay it any longer, opinion writing here I come...

Oh!

What a weekend!

The MCT exam was exhausting, but unlike last year's MCT (when I was in the nursery class and was allowed to go home after the exam), I had to pick myself up and do classes in the afternoon. I'd love to tell you what the afternoon classes were about, but my memory fails me. Yes, I know it was only 2 days ago, but I'm tired and emotional.

I hope to have done ok in the Criminal Litigation part of the MCT, but the Civil was a struggle. The pass mark is 60% for each subject - results are out in a month or so. I may just be tempted to join the Foreign Legion, in order to avoid that horrible feeling when scrolling down the exam results lists in search of a miracle hope.

We had feedback for our Drafting and Opinion Writing mocks. 75% of students failed the Drafting! Not a good start to the exam season.

The Negotiation mock was awful. I will reveal more at a later date.

We have been given the papers for the Drafting and Opinion Writing exams, which are to be handed in next month. The Opinion looks ok(ish), but the Drafting - well, we shall see!There's a lot of work to do in the next 4 weeks, I just hope that I don't mess up.

I suppose I'm suffering that awful feeling of anti-climax today. I did so much revision for the 3 hour exam and yet there were still questions that were a complete mystery to me?

Bye for now:-)

7 Days and Counting

Back to school next week:-(

Today Barman bought me a nice new jotter, a proper grown up one with coloured tabs, no excuses now for being totally disorganised and untidy *cough*.

It is quite amusing to look through last year's jotter and see relatively neat, orderly writing, followed by an ever decreasing scrawly mess as the academic year progressed.

Drafting is one of my favourite subjects, but having not done any for a few months, I'd completely forgotten how to do it and had put off doing the homework until yesterday. Thankfully the thinking about it was much worse than the reality of doing it and I managed to get the work done in a couple of hours. I've still got the counterclaim (of a defence and counterclaim) to do, but I think that it'll be ok?

I've had the timetable through for next year and we have a change of tutor for all of the subjects. There is one tutor who has an excellent reputation for his advocacy tuition and my small group has him for the most of year two. Best of all, my favourite tutor (who we only had on the odd occasion) is teaching my group Opinion Writing and Drafting. If I don't go into airhead mode, I stand a chance of doing ok in the written skills, but I can be very blinkered at times and miss out the most obvious points!

Most of the home work is done (in a fashion), but I need a couple of days to tidy it all up. I'm hoping to grab one or two days next week to have a break. Having worked and studied through the Summer hols, I'm shattered and am in need of some shoe shopping.

p.s. this is my 100th blog post and I've still got readers! Must be a hell of a lot of insomniacs out there!

Don't Panic Captain Mainwaring

In a month's time I will be back at school and the enormity of the Summer homework schedule has just sunk in. I've been ploughing through some Civil Litigation and Criminal Litigation homework, but there's just so much left to do. I have an Opinion to do, a Writing Skills workbook to fill in, some Drafting homework, preparation for the start of the Negotiation module and also preparation for the commencement of the Examination-in-Chief element of Advocacy (which I know nothing about at all). Oh, and I must also find time to spend a day in court and prepare a written report on the case. None of it looks easy, most of the subject matter is new, so I'll need to spend time researching unfamiliar areas of law.

Back in June it all looked achievable, but now in mid-August it's not going quite as planned.

Crikey! 8 exams, countless mocks, options, homework, revision for MCT...

One day I'll laugh about all of this, but right now I need chocolate.

There it was gone

At long last year 1 of BVC is over. Today I feel relaxed but exhausted. There is a mountain of study materials to sort out and to file, but I think it will have to wait for a day or two.

The Advocacy exam went quite well, the 12 minutes seemed to pass very quickly and I was amazed when it was all over. Luckily my nerves were ok during the exam, but my legs turned to jelly afterwards and I was unable to eat anything until evening time due to the butterflies. In fact it was really quite enjoyable in a masochistic sort of way. Some of the younger students were extremely distressed before the exam and I had to take myself off and hide in a corner away from them and make myself stay focused. I had practised my opening lines so many times and had convinced myself that if I got through the preliminaries smoothly, succinctly and calmly, the main bulk of my submissions would be so much easier to handle. I think the strategy paid off, as for me the nerves are always worst at the beginning.

The results to my mock Drafting exam were ok too and the few minutes individual feedback from the tutor were extremely helpful. Drafting is a difficult module, it resembles nothing that is studied at LLB level, so there are no transferable skills to speak of (apart from the obvious, such as spelling and punctuation), but it is a rewarding module and has more reality attached to it than other modules, which by necessity of law school confines, have a synthetic and sometimes silly feel about them. I must admit that it feels very 'grown up' to have Drafted a Particulars of Claim or an Injunction reasonably successfully.

I now need to concentrate on my 'proper' job and bring in some money before BVC recommences in September.

N is for novella

Novella - n - a short narrative tale.

I hope that you all had a good Christmas and I wish everyone who reads my latest novella a very happy New Year. I would have also included 'prosperous', but that's taking things a bit too far in the current economic climate!

Well, I came back from London yesterday a little bemused and a lot relieved that the first study weekend of 2009 is over. The workload for last month was huge and I just about got there with it all, but BVC is throwing up all sorts of surprises. I crashed and burned in both Conference and Advocacy and would like to say that I took the tutor's criticisms firmly on the chin, but what with all the homework and hard work I've put in, I didn't and instead committed the most cardinal of sins - arguing with the teacher. Today on reflection I realise that it would have been wiser to have kept my big mouth shut, but they are (or were) my favourite/best subjects and I was hoping to do quite well.

On the other hand, I received the results for my mock Legal Research paper and passed! I had expected a 30% - 40% mark, but did quite a bit better, so I'm hoping that the real thing will be okay. I also had my first Drafting classes and the second class, taught by the head of Civil Litigation, was incredible, so much so, that I actually quite like drafting now. Although I believe that teaching skills can, to a certain extent be acquired, truly great teachers are naturals and just instinctively know how to get the point across and instill confidence in the most nervous and hesitant pupil(s).

So today is a time for reflection (and sorting out the mountains of washing, mucking out Bar-Os's stable, sorting out my chaotic house and drinking coffee), to take stock of what I need to do studywise in the next 4 weeks and to then panic because it's all getting a bit 'real' now. BVC carries with it a total of 13 assessments and a few hidden/continual assessments too, so from now on, each month will include preparation for some sort of test. Legal Research is first (at the end of January), followed by the first Civil and Criminal MCT at the end of February. My Legal Research paper is once again on Family Law (everyone gets a different subject) and I'm unsure whether this is a good or a bad thing, time will tell, but at least I'm vaguely familiar with the topic - sort of...

As a mature student I need to do very well in BVC in order to stand a chance against the 'young uns', when it comes to pupillage. In a funny sort of way I'm really pleased with the outcome of this last weekend, not least because it appears that academically, I'm not quite as thick as I first thought. I have classmates who (unlike moi) have received the very, very best of British education all the way through their lives and at times the thought of keeping up with them is, quite frankly, daunting, but I'm hanging on in there and by sheer hard graft hope to do quite well. I think that I have relied on the Advocacy and Conference a bit too much because I'd assumed that they would be the ONLY subjects that I could be good at, but it seems to be the case that I can be quite good at the other subjects too if I graft really hard.

My group are worth a mention, cheesey though it sounds, they are all extremely nice and are such a diverse bunch that it makes for a really interesting mix of personalities. I'm very fond of all of them and it was really good to catch up with everyone and have a collective moan about BVC. With much of part-time BVC involving solitary, distance learning, it's very re-assuring to discover,when chatting with the others, that everyone has the same or similar difficulties, doubts and 'blonde moments'.

Anyway bloggers, all this chatter won't buy baby a new bonnet, so I must get some work done.